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Comprising about 20 mentally challenged women, aged between 15 to 50, the band is led by Jaya. The members start their performance with a smart march up around the campus in response to the bandmaster's orders of `Parade attention' `Parade Stand at ease' and `Quick march'. The march past over, they strike up the notes in gay abandon–striking the drums, trumpets, tambourines and cymbals with unbridled enthusiasm. There is no rhythm, much less any co-ordination, yet the applause you feel like giving them after the 10 minute performance is the kinds one would reserve only for the very best.
``I had got a musician from Kerala to teach the women these instruments. He tried for sometime but soon gave up and went back after handing me the reins. I tried to put whatever method I could into it and got the band going. Now we are also called once in a while on World Disabled day or some days of national importance to perform in front of the public too. It's great for the girls’ morale,' says Sister Domini. A fact reiterated by the flushed faces of the musicians for whom the arrival of any guest to the Home is an occasion to show off their skills.
And there's lots more that they need to be appreciated for. Arranged neatly in showcases in the office are bundles of crochet bed covers, bead work sarees and intricately designed jewellery that are also the handiwork of the inmates. ``The girls need to be kept occupied and hence we introduced them to these arts. They are instinctively good at them. We hold exhibitions of the jewellery made and sell them at very nominal prices," adds Domini who has also taken the women for excursions to nearby places as well as far off cities like Mysore and Hyderabad. ``They are helpless women abandoned by the society. We are the only parents they have, so I would like to give them as many pleasant experiences as possible because if we don't, who else will," says Domini who's next target to is to take the girls on a short trip by air.
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